Layout size question

One of our users seems to get lost in layout designs and every time the .cly files goes over 2,200 KB it no longer becomes editable in the Layout Designer. The layout designer opens but completely blank, I've tried to open it on a different computer with the same results.

The layout works fine when selected from the dropdown on the main act screen but edit is a no go. Any ideas how to fix this?

Re: Layout size question

I wanted to compare the broken layout with a working layout so, I opened them both using Notepad ++ to do a side by side comparison. Nothing obvious was standing out so, I decided to clear out any blank lines hoping this would reduce the file size.

When this layout was selected in Act, I received "Error loading the layout" message (kind of expected this).

After opening the layout designer it threw an error telling me the layout file was not valid.

Within the layout designer I tried to open the original layout which worked!

In summary..

The layout that was opening blank within the designer will now open fine as long as a broken layout is selected in Act first.

This changes the workflow a little but at least the layout can now be edited.

Re: Layout size question

To my knowledge there aren't any specific layout file size limitations. My guess is that it;s a complex layout and that it has exceeded the capacity of the layout editor. The layout is an XML file that's compiled at runtime. Of necessity the layout editor must work between the compiled version and the XML source code at the same time which would be a load on resources.

Re: Layout size question

The layout was working fine until, I made a simple label edit. After the edit every single field was missing from it. As you can see from the screenshot below all labels remained but the fields vanished.

I opened the layout designer and started re-adding the fields. There are literally thousands of fields to add so this was going to take some time. About 2 hours later, I had to close the layout designer. When, I tried to open it again there was nothing but a blank screen. Screenshot below..

Re: Layout size question

I wanted to compare the broken layout with a working layout so, I opened them both using Notepad ++ to do a side by side comparison. Nothing obvious was standing out so, I decided to clear out any blank lines hoping this would reduce the file size.

When this layout was selected in Act, I received "Error loading the layout" message (kind of expected this).

After opening the layout designer it threw an error telling me the layout file was not valid.

Within the layout designer I tried to open the original layout which worked!

In summary..

The layout that was opening blank within the designer will now open fine as long as a broken layout is selected in Act first.

This changes the workflow a little but at least the layout can now be edited.